With eight minutes left in the game, the Eagles had amassed just 127 total yards, only 12 on the ground, and had only five first downs;

The Eagles didn’t cross midfield until 4:30 remained;

The Eagles had a chance to score their first offensive points in the final two minutes to maybe win the game, but whiffed on four plays from inside the 10;

In the end, the Eagles scrounged just 213 yards, and QB Nick Foles — who led the NFL in passing yards entering Week 4 — was held to just 21-of-43 for 191 yards and two interceptions.

“Our defence played a hell of a game today,” Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick told NBC. “They gave us the opportunity to come back and get this win at the end.”

The only reason the score was so close was that the Eagles had become the first team in NFL history to score touchdowns on a blocked punt, a punt return (Darren Sproles’ 82-yarder) and an interception return all in the first half of a game.

The Niners didn’t panic. Kaepernick made enough plays with his arm and feet and, more importantly for the long term, running back Frank Gore reasserted his value to the San Fran offence — rushing for 119 yards and weaving 55 yards for a score on a dump-off pass.

“We had to get back to .500 so we can keep moving forward and try to get to 14-2,” Kaepernick said.

ONE-TWO-THREE-KICK: Cliché No. 2? It’s nice to have a good punter, but the more you use him the worse your offence is, especially your quarterback.

By contrast, neither the Green Bay Packers nor Chicago Bears punted once in their game at sunny Soldier Field. It was only the second time that’s ever happened in NFL history.

Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler together threw for 558 yards and six touchdown passes, and guided attacks that generated 858 yards of total offence.

“With about five minutes left in the fourth quarter,” Packers punter Tim Masthay told Packers.com, “I started to think, yeah, this is probably going to happen.”

DIVERSIFY: Cliché No. 3? Your passing game is hard to stop if you spread the ball around.

Andrew Luck did just that in the Indianapolis Colts’ 41-17 demolition of the Tennessee Titans. The third-year passer not only connected with nine different receivers, but eight of them caught at least two passes. And six averaged at least 10 yards a reception: Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton, Trent Richardson, Dwayne Allen, Coby Fleener and Ahmad Bradshaw.

After an 0-2 start, the Colts have scored more than 40 points — and Luck has thrown for more than 380 yards and four touchdowns — in each of their blowout wins over division rivals, Jacksonville and Tennessee.

“It was an opportunity for us to put our foot down in the division,” Wayne said. “We let everybody know: the Colts? We’re pretty solid.”

The Titans fell to 1-3 with backup quarterback Charlie Whitehurst struggling, and the Titans defence as bad as it was last week in a 33-7 loss to Cincinnati.

BUCS START HERE: Cliché No. 4? If you have a struggling team down, put them out of their misery — or watch out.

Well, the 2-1 Pittsburgh Steelers had the 0-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers down 24-17 entering the fourth quarter, in Pittsburgh, but the Steelers blew it.

Antonio Brown dropped a sure-touchdown off a perfectly thrown flea-flicker bomb from Ben Roethlisberger, and the Bucs defence smothered the Steelers running game.

All of which set up second-year Tampa Bay quarterback Mike Glennon’s heroics. He hit Vincent Jackson in the end zone from five yards out, with seven seconds left, to give the Bucs their first win under new head coach Lovie Smith, 27-24.

Smith is the architect of the Bucs’ defence, which in the final quarter dumped Steelers running backs for big losses on four of five carries.

“I was out last year, so it’s been a long time since I’ve tasted winning a game,” Smith said. “For our football team, we needed this.”

RIVERS HAS IT FLOWING: Cliché No. 5? In a shootout, the savvy veteran quarterback is going to beat the raw rookie every time.

But give Blake Bortles credit. For one half he performed impressively for the Jacksonville Jaguars, in his first career start. The No. 3 overall draft pick completed 15-of-18 for 143 yards and a touchdown, and the Jags trailed only 17-14 at the break.

But the Chargers pulled away thanks, again, to the precision passing of Phil Rivers. The Chargers outscored the Jags 16-0 in the second half to win 33-14. The underrated San Diego defence picked off Bortles twice after the intermission.

AND FINALLY: Cliché No. 6? You can motivate a comfortable quarterback by threatening to bench him.

Ryan Tannehill had been the unquestioned starter for the Miami Dolphins since 2012. But he struggled badly the past two weeks in ugly losses, and this past week head coach Joe Philbin refused to confirm that Tannehill would start in Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders in London, England.

Tannehill didn’t sulk. He responded by efficiently dissecting the Raiders pass defence for 278 yards and two touchdowns, as the Dolphins won in a laugher, 38-14.

At one point Tannehill completed 14 passes in a row.

“I know I wasn’t playing up to standards the last few weeks, so I wanted to come out and personally play better,” said Tannehill, whose Dolphins improved to 2-2. “To finally come out and do that felt good.”

Raiders play-by-play radio announcer Greg Papa summed up the plight of 0-4 Oakland: